CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 24/05/2019

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

DEVEL­OP­MENT PROPOSED: Renov­a­tion and erec­tion of exten­sion to build­ing at Ptar­mig­an Res­taur­ant Glen­more Aviemore

REF­ER­ENCE: 2018/0177/DET

APPLIC­ANT: High­lands and Islands Enterprise

DATE CALLED-IN: 8 May 2018

RECOM­MEND­A­TION: Approve sub­ject to conditions

CASE OFFICER: Kath­er­ine Don­nach­ie Plan­ning Officer

CNPA Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Applic­a­tion Site

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 24/05/2019

SITE DESCRIP­TION, PRO­POS­AL AND HISTORY

Site Descrip­tion

1. The pro­posed site is the Ptar­mig­an res­taur­ant at the top of Cairngorm, with­in the Cairngorm Ski Centre around 12 miles south east of Aviemore. The res­taur­ant is loc­ated close to the moun­tain top is accessed by an exist­ing funicu­lar rail­way which is presently out of use whilst repairs to a struc­tur­al issue is invest­ig­ated. The res­taur­ant can also be accessed by a path up the moun­tain and there is a vehicle track for main­ten­ance and ser­vice pur­poses. The site loc­a­tion is shown in Appendix I — Plans.

2. The exist­ing build­ing con­tains café, shop, view­ing area, funicu­lar rail­way ter­minus and exhib­i­tion areas. It was con­struc­ted between 1999 and 2001 as part of the Cairngorm Moun­tain funicu­lar rail­way pro­ject. There is no unsu­per­vised access per­mit­ted from the res­taur­ant to the moun­tain top/​plateau for envir­on­ment­al reas­ons. This is con­trolled by an exist­ing leg­al agree­ment dat­ing from the ori­gin­al rail­way and res­taur­ant proposals.

3. Ski tows and lifts, snow fen­cing and asso­ci­ated ski infra­struc­ture is loc­ated in this area includ­ing the recently exten­ded west wall tow to the east. The Ptar­mig­an build­ing itself is partly set into the topography.

4. The wider ski centre site is accessed by the exist­ing B970 road from Glen­more which ter­min­ates at a large park­ing area, beside the day lodge and funicu­lar rail­way base sta­tion, to the far north west of the res­taur­ant. As noted earli­er the funicu­lar rail­way then leads up the moun­tain to the Ptarmigan.

5. The site lies with­in the Cairngorm Moun­tain Ski area which lies with­in the Cairngorms Nation­al Scen­ic Area. There are no oth­er des­ig­na­tions on the site itself. The Cairngorms Spe­cial Area of Con­ser­va­tion (SAC) des­ig­nated for hab­it­at interest, the Cairngorms Spe­cial Pro­tec­tion Area (SPA) des­ig­nated for bird life includ­ing golden eagle and dot­ter­el and the Cairngorms Site of Spe­cial Sci­entif­ic Interest (SSSI) des­ig­nated for breed­ing bird assemblage, bry­ophyte assemblage, dot­ter­el and dys­troph­ic and oli­go­troph­ic lochs (fresh­wa­ter hab­it­ats) all lie with­in prox­im­ity to the site. The Cairngorms Wild Land Area No. 15 as iden­ti­fied in Scot­tish Nat­ur­al Heritage’s wild land area map also lies to the west of the site encirc­ling the ski area.

Pro­pos­al

1. The draw­ings and doc­u­ments asso­ci­ated with this applic­a­tion are lis­ted below and are avail­able on the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity web­site unless noted oth­er­wise: http://​www​.eplan​ningcnpa​.co​.uk/​o​n​l​i​n​e​-​a​p​p​l​i​c​a​t​i​o​n​s​/​a​p​p​l​i​c​a​t​i​o​n​D​e​t​a​i​l​s​.​d​o​?​a​c​t​i​v​e​T​a​b​=​s​u​m​m​a​r​y​&​k​e​y​V​a​l​=​P​8​G​H​3​H​S​I​0CA00

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 24/05/2019

Title	Draw­ing Num­ber	Date on Plan*	Date Received
Gen­er­al Arrange­ments Exist­ing Plans	PL (20) 0001	13/03/18
Gen­er­al Arrange­ments Exist­ing Elevations	PL (20) 0002	13/03/18
Gen­er­al Arrange­ments Pro­posed Plans and Elevations	PL (20) 0003	13/03/18
Gen­er­al Arrange­ments Pro­posed Plans and Elevations	PL (20) 0004	13/03/18
Gen­er­al Arrange­ments Pro­posed Sections	PL (20) 0005	13/03/18
Site Inform­a­tion Site Plan	PL(90)001	13/03/18
Loc­a­tion Plan	PL(90)002	14/03/18
Land­scape Appraisal		04/04/18
Site waste man­age­ment plan	SW1183	28/02/18
Drain­age Statement	C2133	28/03/18
Sup­port­ing Statement		12/03/18
Design and Access Statement	Rev C	02/05/18
Visu­al­isa­tions
Trans­port Statement
Trans­port Assessment	18037 Revi­sion 01	July 2018
Ptar­mig­an redevel­op­ment mit­ig­a­tion and enhance­ment plan	8061	01/02/18
Cairngorm Moun­tain Long Term Strategy
NVC Sur­vey		July 2018
Out­door Access Man­age­ment Plan	Revi­sion A	01/11/18
Traffic Man­age­ment Plan	Issue no. 05	26/10/18
Con­struc­tion Phase Meth­od Statement	Issue no. 04	29/10/18
Ptar­mig­an Design Pre­ced­ents report	D(00)002 Rev A	July 2018
Orni­tho­logy Report	GEL18242 Revi­sion 3	24/10/18
*Where no spe­cif­ic day of month has been provided on the plan, the sys­tem defaults to the 1st of the month.

1. This applic­a­tion seeks full plan­ning per­mis­sion to ren­ov­ate and extend the exist­ing Ptar­mig­an building.

2. The exist­ing build­ing is an irreg­u­larly shaped build­ing with com­plex hipped, pale grey clad­ding roof as shown in the exist­ing plans and elev­a­tions in Appendix I – Plans. Extern­al fin­ishes are a mix­ture of nat­ur­al stone and tim­ber. The ground/​basement level of the build­ing con­tains the plat­form area for the funicu­lar rail­way. The remainder of this level con­tains shop, exhib­i­tion area and toi­let facil­it­ies. There are steps and lift up to the next level which con­tains the café, kit­chen and viewing

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 24/05/2019

plat­form facil­it­ies along with ski patrol office, switch/​control rooms and funicu­lar plat­form area. The top level of the build­ing con­tains plant room and void space.

1. The pro­posed devel­op­ment seeks to alter and extend this build­ing to provide addi­tion­al facil­it­ies and view­ing plat­forms, wrap­ping around the build­ing in an almost cir­cu­lar man­ner. In brief the pro­pos­als involve extend­ing the exist­ing build­ing by way of new build on stilts/​supports radi­at­ing out in an angled man­ner from the ori­gin­al build­ing so min­im­ising ground impacts and excav­a­tions, and at the same time seek­ing to max­im­ise views out from the build­ing and to improve cir­cu­la­tion, access­ib­il­ity and the facil­it­ies on offer. This is explained in the design state­ment and accom­pa­ny­ing plans and shown on the mass­ing images con­tained in Appendix I- Plans. The exist­ing build­ing would be exten­ded by around one third.

2. The pro­pos­als may be sum­mar­ised as fol­lows: a) The ground/​basement level will con­tin­ue to house the funicu­lar rail­way plat­form and exhibition/​shop area along with toi­let pro­vi­sion. To the west of the entrance to the funicu­lar rail­way the oppor­tun­ity will be taken to improve snow clear­ance at fire exits here which will now lie under­neath the deck­ing area to be con­struc­ted above. The ground here will remain open as shown in the north elev­a­tion. A new stair is pro­posed to the sum­mit room at the top of the exten­ded build­ing. b) On the first floor level new toi­let facil­it­ies will be provided, a lar­ger café area, new arrival foy­er pro­vi­sion with extens­ive glaz­ing, extern­al deck­ing areas on either side of a new glazed fron­ted ​“sum­mit” room which will house con­fer­ence facilities/​meeting room on a second floor. This will be achieved by glazed, slop­ing exten­sions around the ori­gin­al build­ing, con­struc­ted on stilts/​supports. c) The main entrance to the build­ing for vis­it­ors arriv­ing and depart­ing will now be on this first floor level with addi­tion­al lift to sum­mit room.

3. Details of these pro­posed works are shown in Appendix I – Plans.

4. Pro­posed extern­al fin­ishes are indic­ated as roof fin­ish to match exist­ing, and a mix­ture of stone and tim­ber wall fin­ishes. The supports/​stilts are to be con­struc­ted in steel. To reduce sol­ar glare the pro­pos­als will have faceted glaz­ing con­struc­ted from spe­cial­ist reflect­ive glass. To avoid light pol­lu­tion at night black out blinds will be placed in stra­tegic loc­a­tions with a black out cur­tain pro­posed to divide the café to cre­ate a space that may be used as a dark sky obser­va­tion zone. (This point was high­lighted by parties respond­ing to the applic­ants’ pub­lic engagement.)

5. The accom­pa­ny­ing design state­ment explains how the pro­posed changes are inten­ded to address issues with the exist­ing lay­out by includ­ing bet­ter toi­let pro­vi­sion and rela­tion­ship to the main café; enlarged café facil­it­ies and view­ing facil­it­ies; con­fer­ence facil­it­ies; improved access­ib­il­ity for vis­it­ors with lim­ited mobil­ity, alle­vi­ate oper­a­tion­al issues such as winter snow clear­ing; improve­ment of the vis­it­or exper­i­ence on arrival into the build­ing by hav­ing a single, sim­pli­fied entry foy­er point; and improve­ment of all year round user experience.

6. The accom­pa­ny­ing sup­port­ing state­ment also out­lined that at the time of sub­mis­sion of the applic­a­tion Cairngorm Moun­tain received on aver­age 210,000 vis­it­ors a year,

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 24/05/2019

with approx­im­ately 60% of vis­it­ors arriv­ing in the winter months between Decem­ber and April. It was inten­ded that improved vis­it­or facil­it­ies at the Ptar­mig­an would help to increase vis­it­or num­bers out­with the peak winter sea­son and enhance the all year round vis­it­or experience.

1. In terms of ser­vi­cing, the exist­ing water sup­ply and tanks serving the Ptar­mig­an will be used with the applic­a­tion out­lining that there is capa­city for the new devel­op­ment. Energy pro­vi­sion will be elec­tri­city as exist­ing as will water sup­ply. Sur­face water will be dealt with in a sim­il­ar man­ner as exist­ing by way of pip­ing into exist­ing drains which ulti­mately dis­charge to the ground and the vari­ous ditches and loosely defined water­courses around the build­ing. Foul drain­age will use the exist­ing waste water treat­ment sys­tem at the Daylodge.

2. At the time of sub­mis­sion of the applic­a­tion the applic­ants were Cairngorm Moun­tain Ltd who has since gone into receiv­er­ship. The applic­a­tion site is under the con­trol of High­lands and Islands Enter­prise who are now the applic­ants with revised applic­a­tion forms sub­mit­ted and they wish the applic­a­tion to pro­ceed to a con­clu­sion. It is pro­posed to carry out the works whilst the exist­ing res­taur­ant and com­plex remains oper­a­tion­al with plans con­tained the design state­ment set­ting out the phasing.

3. Sup­port­ing inform­a­tion includes: a) Traffic Man­age­ment Plan which explains that smal­ler items of equip­ment etc. will be trans­por­ted via the funicu­lar rail­way or by 4 x 4 vehicles, with lar­ger items flown in by heli­copter or poten­tially by pur­pose built tractor/​trailer using exist­ing access road which may require to be dressed and graded. b) Con­struc­tion Phase Meth­od State­ment — this was updated in Octo­ber 2018 and now high­lights that the use of heli­copters is no longer to be employed as a res­ult of the poten­tial for impacts upon bird life. c) Site Waste Man­age­ment Plan. d) Drain­age State­ment. e) Trans­port State­ment which explains that the poten­tial for increased year round use of the facil­ity may help to sup­port the case for bet­ter trans­port links. A series of pos­sible actions to improve sus­tain­able travel are set out includ­ing mar­ket­ing, part­ner­ship work­ing and invest­ment in act­ive travel infra­struc­ture. f) Trans­port Assess­ment which covered both the Ptar­mig­an pro­pos­als and the pro­posed dry ski slope at the Day Lodge which was the sub­ject of a sep­ar­ate plan­ning applic­a­tion which was refused last year by the CNPA Plan­ning Com­mit­tee. This assess­ment pro­posed some sus­tain­able trans­port ini­ti­at­ives to improve access includ­ing improved sig­nage and pub­li­city of des­ig­nated path net­works, cycle stor­age, bus stop and shel­ter facil­it­ies at day lodge area, and work with stake­hold­ers to improve bus ser­vices. g) Traffic Man­age­ment Plan which was updated in Octo­ber 2018. h) Sup­port­ing State­ment. i) Land­scape apprais­al includ­ing Zone of The­or­et­ic­al Visu­al Influ­ence (ZTV) inform­a­tion, visu­al­isa­tions and spe­cial land­scape qual­it­ies impact assess­ment Key visu­al­isa­tions are included in Appendix I- Plans. j) Mit­ig­a­tion and Enhance­ment Plan includ­ing inver­teb­rate sur­vey report, lichen sur­vey report, NVC sur­vey report and eco­lo­gic­al sur­vey report all of which

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 24/05/2019

informed the mit­ig­a­tion pro­pos­als to min­im­ise impacts dur­ing con­struc­tion and oper­a­tion, and enhance­ment meas­ures to improve hab­it­at post construction.

k)  Design and Access Statement.
l)  Ptarmigan Design Precedents to support the use of glazing showing how this has been achieved elsewhere.
m)  NVC Survey.
n)  Cairngorm Mountain Long Term Strategy prepared by the original applicants. This strategy described activity within three core areas of operation of the business:
     i.  Conservation of the mountain plateau;
    ii.  Year round operations and visitor experience; and
   iii.  Sensitive development opportunities and ongoing maintenance. The expansion of the Ptarmigan was identified as being one of the short term (1-5 years) development opportunities of the strategy.

1. Fol­low­ing dis­cus­sion fur­ther sup­port­ing inform­a­tion was provided in Novem­ber 2018 includ­ing: a) Out­door Access Man­age­ment Plan out­lining meas­ures to ensure that unres­tric­ted access will be main­tained for recre­ation­al use. b) Orni­tho­logy Report which provided addi­tion­al evid­ence relat­ing to the impacts of the pro­posed glaz­ing upon bird­life. This sup­ple­men­ted the pre­vi­ously sub­mit­ted Design Pre­ced­ents Report.

His­tory

1. CNPA officers provided pre-applic­a­tion advice for this devel­op­ment via the High­land Coun­cil pre applic­a­tion pro­cess and out­lined key issues to be addressed and inform­a­tion to be provided with any sub­mis­sion. (PRE/2017/0004)

2. Some mem­bers may recall that an applic­a­tion for begin­ners and inter­me­di­ate ski slopes was refused con­trary to officer recom­mend­a­tion to the far south beside the day lodge in 2018 on the grounds of unac­cept­able land­scape impacts. (ref­er­ence 2018/0112/DET)

3. There have been numer­ous plan­ning applic­a­tions in the Cairngorm Moun­tain area for works to tows, tracks etc. as well as the ori­gin­al funicu­lar rail­way applic­a­tion approved in 1997 and dealt with by the High­land Coun­cil pri­or to the form­ing of the Nation­al Park. (Ref­er­ence 94/00254/FULBS) Full plan­ning per­mis­sion gran­ted by the High­land Coun­cil in 2002 to vary con­di­tion 11 of the ori­gin­al funicu­lar rail­way con­sent in order to retain 3 metre wide access track for vehicu­lar use (Ref­er­ence 02/00382/FUL)

4. Full plan­ning per­mis­sion was also gran­ted by the High­land Coun­cil in 2015 for an exten­sion to the west wall poma ski tow beside the Ptar­mig­an and a new return wheel at the south­ern­most end of the ski tow (Ref­er­ence 15/01000/FUL)

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 24/05/2019

DEVEL­OP­MENT PLAN CONTEXT

Policies

Nation­al Policy	Scot­tish Plan­ning Policy 2014
Stra­tegic Policy	Cairngorms Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan 2017 — 2022
Loc­al Plan Policy	Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan (2015)Those policies rel­ev­ant to the assess­ment of this applic­a­tion are marked with a cross
POLICY I	NEW HOUS­ING DEVELOPMENT
POLICY 2	SUP­PORT­ING ECO­NOM­IC GROWTH X
POLICY 3	SUS­TAIN­ABLE DESIGN X
POLICY 4	NAT­UR­AL HER­IT­AGE X
POLICY 5	LAND­SCAPE X
POLICY 6	THE SIT­ING AND DESIGN OF DIGIT­AL COM­MU­NIC­A­TIONS EQUIPMENT
POLICY 7	RENEW­ABLE ENERGY
POLICY 8	SPORT AND RECRE­ATION X
POLICY 9	CUL­TUR­AL HERITAGE
POLICY 10	RESOURCES X
POLICY 11	DEVELOPER CON­TRI­BU­TIONS

1. All new devel­op­ment pro­pos­als require to be assessed in rela­tion to policies con­tained in the adop­ted Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan. The full word­ing of policies can be found at: http://​cairngorms​.co​.uk/​u​p​l​o​a​d​s​/​d​o​c​u​m​e​n​t​s​/Park Authority/Planning/LDP15.pdf

2. The site sites with the area covered by the Cairngorm and Glen­more Strategy that was approved by the CNPA Board in Septem­ber 2016. The strategy is a part­ner­ship doc­u­ment that sets the aspir­a­tions for man­age­ment of pub­licly owned land, not a plan­ning policy doc­u­ment. The strategy iden­ti­fies the Cairngorm Moun­tain area as one that is prin­cip­ally man­aged for recre­ation and learn­ing. The long term dir­ec­tion for the area includes enhance­ment of vis­it­or infra­struc­ture and facil­it­ies to ensure high qual­ity, low impact devel­op­ment, refer­ring to work­ing with on-site busi­nesses to devel­op plans for the enhance­ment of vis­it­or facil­it­ies at Cairngorm Moun­tain with the Ptar­mig­an iden­ti­fied as a site for vis­it­or infra­struc­ture improve­ments. It also refers to chan­ging the way people access the area to increase the pro­por­tion of non-car use. The Strategy sets out more detailed actions includ­ing pro­pos­als for spa­tial plans for Glen­more and Cairngorm and refers to devel­op­ment of a Cairngorm Moun­tain masterplan.

3. The CNPA is cur­rently con­sid­er­ing responses to the Pro­posed Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2020 and at present this Plan has no addi­tion­al mater­i­al­ity with regard to decision mak­ing for this cur­rent application.

Plan­ning Guidance

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 24/05/2019

1. Sup­ple­ment­ary guid­ance also forms part of the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan and provides more details about how to com­ply with the policies. Guid­ance that is rel­ev­ant to this applic­a­tion is marked with a cross.

Policy I	New Hous­ing Devel­op­ment Non-Stat­utory Guidance
Policy 2	Sup­port­ing Eco­nom­ic Growth Non-Stat­utory Guid­ance X
Policy 3	Sus­tain­able Design Non-Stat­utory Guid­ance X
Policy 4	Nat­ur­al Her­it­age Sup­ple­ment­ary Guid­ance X
Policy 5	Land­scape Non-Stat­utory Guid­ance X
Policy 7	Renew­able Energy Sup­ple­ment­ary Guidance
Policy 8	Sport and Recre­ation Non-Stat­utory Guid­ance X
Policy 9	Cul­tur­al Her­it­age Non-Stat­utory Guidance
Policy 10	Resources Non-Stat­utory Guid­ance X
Policy 11	Developer Con­tri­bu­tions Sup­ple­ment­ary Guidance

CON­SULTA­TIONS

Sum­mary of the Main Issues Raised by Consultees

1. Scot­tish Nat­ur­al Her­it­age (SNH) was con­sul­ted as the devel­op­ment lies close to the Cairngorms Spe­cial Pro­tec­tion Area (SPA) for a vari­ety of birds spe­cies, includ­ing dot­ter­el which is a spe­cies in an unfa­vour­able declin­ing con­di­tion, and close to the Cairngorms Spe­cial Area of Con­ser­va­tion (SPA) des­ig­nated for a vari­ety of hab­it­at types.

2. When ini­tially con­sul­ted SNH high­lighted that in order to com­ment they would require, (as reques­ted at the pre- applic­a­tion stage) addi­tion­al inform­a­tion to demon­strate that an evid­ence based design for avoid­ing bird strike will be provided. The ini­tial design pre­ced­ent report provided by the applic­ants was not con­sidered to be suf­fi­cient to determ­ine wheth­er or not there would be a sig­ni­fic­ant effect on the dot­ter­el qual­i­fy­ing interests of the Cairngorms Spe­cial Pro­tec­tion Area and fur­ther inform­a­tion was requested.

3. SNH high­lighted that dot­ter­el can be act­ive at any time through­out day and night and the Ptar­mig­an build­ing is sub­ject to vari­able weath­er con­di­tions par­tic­u­larly low cloud. This means that dot­ter­el can be act­ive in the vicin­ity of the build­ing dur­ing peri­ods of poor vis­ib­il­ity. Also as the build­ing is used dur­ing the hours of dark­ness the win­dows are lit up which in itself can attract birds. Accord­ingly any increased risk to dot­ter­el must be fully con­sidered in the light of the addi­tion­al glaz­ing now pro­posed which is also at a dif­fer­ent angle.

4. A fur­ther orni­tho­logy report was provided by the applic­ants and SNH has now advised that the pro­pos­al could be pro­gressed with appro­pri­ate mit­ig­a­tion, and provid­ing any con­sent is sub­ject to con­di­tions requir­ing that this mit­ig­a­tion be under­taken they do not object. SNH detailed the neces­sary mit­ig­a­tion, high­light­ing that if this is under­taken they did not con­sider that the pro­pos­als would adversely

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 24/05/2019

31. affect the integ­rity of the des­ig­nated sites and that the mit­ig­a­tion is con­sidered suf­fi­cient to min­im­ise the risk of bird collisions.

The mit­ig­a­tion required is as follows:

a)  Reduce the area of reflective and transparent glass by the type of glazing specification and by adding manifestation patterning of the types recommended in paragraph 4.3.4 of the Gavia Ornithology Report.
b)  Corners where panes join to be heavily framed.
c)  A combination of blinds and curtains to be used to keep artificial light within the building during internal events held in the building in evenings and during periods of low level external natural light.
d)  During construction newly erected glazed areas to be covered until the agreed manifestation measures have been added to the glass.

1. As the approaches out­lined in the orni­tho­logy report are derived from research over­seas and so are nov­el in terms of the bird spe­cies and light/​weather con­di­tions in Scot­land SNH also require that post con­struc­tion mon­it­or­ing be car­ried out. This is gen­er­ally as recom­men­ded in the orni­tho­logy report and SNH recom­mend impos­i­tion of a plan­ning con­di­tion to this end.

2. SNH also advise that dot­ter­el are unlikely to be dis­turbed at the con­struc­tion stage as they are rel­at­ively res­ist­ant to dis­turb­ance, using areas near the Ptar­mig­an des­pite exist­ing noise, vehicle move­ments and walkers/​skiers. They fur­ther note that there is no evid­ence to sug­gest dot­ter­el were dis­turbed dur­ing con­struc­tion of the funicu­lar and the Ptar­mig­an originally.

3. SNH have high­lighted that the CNPA as com­pet­ent author­ity require to under­take an appro­pri­ate assess­ment in rela­tion to sig­ni­fic­ant effects on the dot­ter­el qual­i­fy­ing interests of the Cairngorms SPA. They do not con­sider that there will be a sig­ni­fic­ant effect on oth­er qual­i­fy­ing spe­cies of the SPA due to their absence or insig­ni­fic­ant pres­ence in the vicin­ity of the build­ing. They also con­sider that it is unlikely that the pro­pos­al will have a sig­ni­fic­ant effect on the Cairngorms SAC whereby an appro­pri­ate assess­ment of effects on the SAC will not be required.

4. Scot­tish Envir­on­ment Pro­tec­tion Agency (SEPA) ini­tially objec­ted to the devel­op­ment on the basis of lack of inform­a­tion in rela­tion to ground water ter­restri­al depend­ent eco­sys­tems (GWTDEs) They also reques­ted impos­i­tion of a plan­ning con­di­tion regard­ing pol­lu­tion pre­ven­tion meas­ures at the con­struc­tion stage and the need for the final site spe­cif­ic Con­struc­tion Meth­od State­ment (CMS) to con­tain all mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures on plan. SEPA also noted that the increase in sum­mer vis­it­or num­bers would improve the func­tion­ing of the waste water treat­ment plant and wel­comed pro­pos­als for only 10 – 12 cubic metres of soil to be excavated.

5. On receipt of addi­tion­al GWTDE inform­a­tion SEPA note that one highly depend­ent GWTDE has been iden­ti­fied to the east of the build­ing, iden­ti­fied as M31 in the NVC sur­vey. It is recom­men­ded that the Eco­lo­gic­al Clerk of Works mark this off on site to ensure it is pro­tec­ted and provid­ing a plan­ning con­di­tion is attached to achieve this then SEPA has no objec­tion. They also note that the con­struc­tion method

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 24/05/2019

state­ment sat­is­fact­or­ily pro­poses good prac­tise to avoid/​mitigate neg­at­ive impacts provid­ing all com­mit­ments made are delivered.

1. The High­land Coun­cil Trans­port Plan­ning Team con­sidered the sub­mit­ted Trans­port Assess­ment (which relates to the applic­a­tion site and anoth­er applic­a­tion pending at the time for a dry ski slope beside the Day Lodge which has since been refused) and noted that it explains that the main driver behind the devel­op­ment is to increase vis­it­or num­bers dur­ing the sum­mer months. The Team are scep­tic­al of the vis­it­or pro­jec­tions set out in the TA, and are dis­ap­poin­ted that it fails to con­sider traffic man­age­ment arrange­ments dur­ing severe winter weath­er; review prob­lems regard­ing dam­age from inform­al park­ing areas; or review any impacts on inform­al park­ing areas from recent intro­duc­tion of car park­ing charges at the main car park.

2. How­ever des­pite this lack of clar­ity the Team agree that there will be an increase in vis­it­or num­bers which will have a neg­at­ive impact on the pub­lic road. To mit­ig­ate this impact improve­ments to the C1126 road will be required. In line with the Glen­more Vis­it­or Improve­ment Plan, the Team recom­mend that con­di­tions be attached to secure: a) The pro­vi­sion of a scheme to reduce the speed of traffic and improve ped­es­tri­an cross­ing facil­it­ies through the set­tle­ment of Glen­more and to improve sign­ing included the vari­able mes­sage signs; b) Improve­ments to the bus pas­sen­ger wait­ing facil­it­ies includ­ing a shel­ter and real time inform­a­tion and pro­vi­sion of cycle park­ing at the centre; c) Pro­vi­sion of a Travel Plan based on the actions set out in the TA; and d) A review to assess the work required to improve the qual­ity of the exist­ing core path (GR12) to the Coire Cas car park to provide an exten­sion to the suc­cess­ful and well used log­ging way in order to increase the num­ber of people walk­ing and cyc­ling to the site espe­cially in the sum­mer and reduce the num­ber of vehicles using the ski road.

3. On this basis they have no objec­tions to the application.

4. The Team also asked for sub­mis­sion of fur­ther inform­a­tion in rela­tion to the sub­mit­ted traffic man­age­ment plan in order to assess the impact of con­struc­tion traffic upon the pub­lic roads (B970 and C1126). On receipt of fur­ther inform­a­tion they have advised that they have no objec­tion to the draft plan but require a fully detailed con­struc­tion traffic man­age­ment plan to be provided which should be secured by plan­ning condition.

5. CNPA Out­door Access Officer ini­tially noted that the site lies with­in an area pop­u­lar for out­door recre­ation pro­moted to the pub­lic for this pur­pose whereby a Pub­lic Access Man­age­ment Plan is required in order to show how inter­ac­tion with the pub­lic will be man­aged at the con­struc­tion stage. The officer provided ongo­ing advice on what would be required with such a plan. The applic­ants sub­mit­ted an Out­door Access Man­age­ment Plan and the Officer advises that this sets out appro­pri­ate meas­ures to ensure that pub­lic recre­ation and access is appro­pri­ately man­aged dur­ing con­struc­tion. The Officer has high­lighted that the Con­struc­tion Meth­od State­ment and Traffic Man­age­ment Plans should be updated to reflect the exist­ence of the Access Plan.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 24/05/2019

1. CNPA Eco­logy Advisor ini­tially high­lighted that a bird strike assess­ment (as reques­ted at the pre applic­a­tion stage) was required. The Officer also noted that the use of heli­copters at the con­struc­tion stage had poten­tial to dis­turb birds whereby an assess­ment of this risk was required. All of this inform­a­tion was also required in order to inform the Hab­it­at Reg­u­la­tions Apprais­al required here in order to con­sider impacts on des­ig­nated sites. Fur­ther inform­a­tion on hab­it­at res­tor­a­tion was also sought and a more detailed con­struc­tion meth­od statement.

2. On receipt of addi­tion­al inform­a­tion the Officer wel­comed the sub­mis­sion of an Orni­tho­logy Report address­ing impact on birds, and noted that the CNPA would defer to the advice of SNH on this par­tic­u­lar aspect. Whilst gen­er­ally wel­com­ing the updated Con­struc­tion Meth­od State­ment and its inclu­sion of mater­i­al on pro­tec­tion of veget­a­tion and role of Eco­lo­gic­al Clerk of Works the Officer con­siders that the plan lacks suf­fi­cient detail on pro­tec­tion and future man­age­ment of the hab­it­at around the Ptar­mig­an to pre­vent fur­ther degrad­a­tion, and a spe­cif­ic Hab­it­at Res­tor­a­tion Plan is still required. Oth­er­wise the Officer has no objec­tions with the mater­i­al sub­mit­ted address­ing pre­vi­ous con­cerns regard­ing envir­on­ment­al safe­guards and future monitoring.

3. A Hab­it­at Reg­u­la­tions Apprais­al (HRA) has been car­ried out in view of the poten­tial for the devel­op­ment to impact upon NATURA sites. This attached as Appendix 2.

4. The HRA con­cludes that there would be no likely sig­ni­fic­ant effects on the Cairngorms Spe­cial Area of Con­ser­va­tion (SPA), but that dot­ter­el could be at risk from col­li­sion with the glaz­ing on the new build­ing and at risk from dis­turb­ance from the con­struc­tion works there may be a likely sig­ni­fic­ant effect upon the Cairngorms Spe­cial Pro­tec­tion Area (SPA) The detailed assess­ment also con­cluded that there would be no impacts on hab­it­at sup­port­ing dot­ter­el and they would be unlikely to be dis­turbed by con­struc­tion as they are rel­at­ively resi­li­ent. How­ever, mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures are neces­sary to reduce the risk of col­li­sion to dot­ter­el and a Spe­cies Pro­tec­tion Plan will be required to detail meas­ures to reduce the impacts includ­ing all meas­ures set out in the orni­tho­logy report.

5. On this basis the HA con­cluded that there are no likely sig­ni­fic­ant effects on the con­ser­va­tion object­ives of the Cairngorms SPA or any adverse effect on the site integ­rity of the SPA.

6. CNPA Land­scape Advisor notes in terms of land­scape char­ac­ter that the new devel­op­ment will use largely the same pal­let of mater­i­als and sim­il­ar geo­met­ric form as exist­ing with the increased height rel­at­ively mod­est. The major­ity of the exten­sion is at or below the exist­ing roof level and the foot­print change is small due to the use of angled beams, min­im­ising ground take and impact on nat­ur­al land­forms. The style and design is in keep­ing with the char­ac­ter of the ski resort and presents no sig­ni­fic­ant change in char­ac­ter. Sim­il­arly the use of angled glass is also in keep­ing and there is a pos­it­ive effect from this in that it may reduce reflec­tion and flare from low level sun­shine which at the moment can draw atten­tion to the build­ing. Accord­ingly it is con­sidered that the pro­pos­al is a straight­for­ward exten­sion to an exist­ing build­ing which presents few chal­lenges to reten­tion of cur­rent landscape

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 24/05/2019

char­ac­ter, and indeed mod­ern­isa­tion of the build­ing may be seen as a pos­it­ive enhance­ment to the imme­di­ate vicinity.

1. In terms of visu­al char­ac­ter the key recept­ors are con­sidered to be recre­ation­al users of the moun­tain core and res­id­ents and vis­it­or to lower areas. All are con­sidered to be of high sens­it­iv­ity. In this regard the cur­rent build­ing is vis­ible from a wide area and it is con­sidered that the exten­sion will not make a sig­ni­fic­ant change to the extent of vis­ib­il­ity. The most sig­ni­fic­ant view of the new exten­sion will be com­ing down from Cairngorm Moun­tain where it will be seen in the con­text of the exist­ing build­ings and infra­struc­ture. Accord­ingly there is not con­sidered to be a sig­ni­fic­ant change. The pro­vi­sion of black out screen­ing is wel­comed and it is assumed that if the build­ing is to be used at night these will be applied to ensure the build­ing is not a source of arti­fi­cial light – this mat­ter should be conditioned.

2. Note – as noted earli­er in this con­sulta­tions sec­tion the black-out blinds are also part of the pro­posed mit­ig­a­tion for impacts upon dotterel.

3. In terms of impacts upon spe­cial land­scape qual­it­ies, the Advisor has com­men­ted on the approach of the applic­ants’ assess­ment in terms of con­sid­er­ing the strength of the qual­ity being con­sidered rather than the num­ber. How­ever the Advisor has con­cluded that in view of there being no sig­ni­fic­ant land­scape or visu­al effects that there will be neg­li­gible effects on the spe­cial land­scape qualities.

4. Sim­il­arly in terms of impacts upon wild­land the Advisor broadly agrees with the con­clu­sion that there is no sig­ni­fic­ant adverse effect on wild­land qual­it­ies, not­ing that the assess­ment is about the addi­tion­al effect of the pro­pos­als rather than about a new fea­ture in the landscape.

5. Aviemore and Vicin­ity Com­munity Coun­cil con­sider that the applic­a­tion is pre­ma­ture to the pro­duc­tion of a mas­ter­plan for Cairngorm Moun­tain as high­lighted in the Cairngorm and Glen­more Strategy agreed by the CNPA Board. They also con­sider that the pro­posed new tower fea­ture will restrict views from the extern­al view­ing area and ques­tion the need for the tower in terms of the func­tion of the sum­mit room, con­clud­ing it is over­power­ing with­in the con­text of the building.

6. Their com­ments are attached as Appendix 3.

7. On receipt of addi­tion­al inform­a­tion from the applic­ants the Com­munity Coun­cil was re-con­sul­ted but had no fur­ther com­ment to make.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 24/05/2019

REP­RES­ENT­A­TIONS

1. The applic­a­tion was advert­ised in the loc­al press and 5 rep­res­ent­a­tions have been received which are attached as Appen­dices 4 (a) and (b). Four of these object, and one provides com­ments. One fur­ther rep­res­ent­a­tion was received out­with the time peri­od for com­ment­ing but did not raise any new mater­i­al issues not con­sidered else­where in this report.

2. Key points raised are as fol­lows: a) Con­cern regard­ing track record of oper­at­ors par­tic­u­larly in rela­tion to envir­on­ment­al issues. b) Poor use of pub­lic money and invest­ment which could bet­ter used on oth­er aspects of the ski centre includ­ing improved altern­at­ive uplift facil­it­ies to relieve strain on the funicu­lar rail­way as well as oth­er ini­ti­at­ives such as moun­tain bik­ing routes and walk­ing paths. c) Pro­posed devel­op­ment will not improve cus­tom at site- cus­tom­ers have been loss due to poor man­age­ment and reduc­tion in facil­it­ies across the centre and this will not be addressed by spend­ing money on the cur­rent pro­pos­als. d) Devel­op­ment will not improve winter tour­ism and snow sports. e) Inap­pro­pri­ate size of build­ing which will be visu­ally intrus­ive. f) Use of glass may have poten­tial envir­on­ment­al impacts upon birds and there is a lack of inform­a­tion on the meas­ures to mit­ig­ate and mon­it­or this. g) Recom­mend­a­tions made to reduce impacts on wild­life dur­ing con­struc­tion and oper­a­tion. h) Applic­a­tion pre­ma­ture whilst HIE and applic­ants are con­duct­ing a review of the infra­struc­ture at the Moun­tain. i) Poten­tial effects on nearby Spe­cial Pro­tec­tion Areas and Spe­cial Pro­tec­tion Areas. j) Any changes in vis­it­or num­bers should be reflec­ted in the agreed vis­it­or man­age­ment plan – sub­mis­sion lacks inform­a­tion on how the pro­pos­als will reduce pres­sure on the exist­ing ​“closed sys­tem” here.

APPRAIS­AL

Prin­ciple

1. Policy 2: Sup­port­ing Eco­nom­ic Growth of the Cairngorms Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015 sets out that devel­op­ment which enhances form­al and inform­al recre­ation and leis­ure facil­it­ies; tour­ism and leis­ure based busi­ness activ­it­ies and attrac­tions; tour­ism and recre­ation infra­struc­ture, includ­ing accom­mod­a­tion; and improved oppor­tun­it­ies for respons­ible out­door access will be sup­por­ted where: a) It has no adverse envir­on­ment­al impacts on the site or neigh­bour­ing areas; b) It makes a pos­it­ive con­tri­bu­tion to the exper­i­ence of vis­it­ors; and c) Adds to or extends the core tour­ist season.

2. Sim­il­arly policy 8: Sport and Recre­ation also sup­ports devel­op­ments of sports and recre­ation facil­it­ies, diver­si­fic­a­tion of or exten­sions to exist­ing sport and recreation

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 24/05/2019

related busi­ness activ­it­ies or the enhance­ment of the qual­ity and design of exist­ing facil­it­ies where they

a)  Demonstrate best practise in terms of sustainable design, operation and future maintenance and where there are no adverse environmental impacts on the site or neighbouring areas;
b)  They will meet an identified community or visitor needs; and
c)  They maintain and maximise all opportunities to link into the existing path network.

1. Scot­tish Plan­ning Policy also pre­sumes in favour of devel­op­ment that con­trib­utes to sus­tain­able devel­op­ment, giv­ing weight to net eco­nom­ic bene­fit, whilst also seek­ing to pre­serve import­ant envir­on­ment­al assets such as land­scape and wild­life hab­it­ats that under­pin con­tinu­ing tour­ism vis­its and qual­ity of place.

2. All the ski centres with­in the Nation­al Park play import­ant roles in the loc­al eco­nomy and Cairngorm Moun­tain plays a par­tic­u­larly import­ant role in mak­ing Badenoch and Strath­spey a sig­ni­fic­ant year-round vis­it­or des­tin­a­tion for the Nation­al Park and the Highlands.

3. Set against this back­ground there is policy sup­port in prin­ciple for a pro­pos­al which in prin­ciple seeks to improve the exist­ing facil­it­ies at the exist­ing ski centre at Cairngorm Moun­tain and to encour­age all year round use of the facility.

4. In terms of the prin­ciple of devel­op­ment it is noted that the Com­munity Coun­cil has raised con­cern that the applic­a­tion has been sub­mit­ted in advance of any mas­ter­plan for the wider site at Cairngorm Moun­tain being pro­duced as the Cairngorm and Glen­more Strategy sets out. How­ever, the Cairngorm and Glen­more Strategy is not a plan­ning policy doc­u­ment and the pro­pos­als must be con­sidered against the policies of the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan. How­ever it may be worth not­ing that, as will be out­lined later in this report, the pro­posed devel­op­ment has the poten­tial to deliv­er on some of the man­age­ment prin­ciples of the Cairngorm and Glen­more Strategy in terms of improve­ments to trans­port and access infra­struc­ture to increase pub­lic trans­port and non-motor­ised access to the area and improve­ments to exist­ing facilities.

5. Object­ors also raised con­cern in rela­tion to the prin­ciple of the devel­op­ment, con­sid­er­ing it to be pre­ma­ture to a review by the land­lord (High­lands and Islands Enter­prise) of the oper­a­tions at the Moun­tain. Since sub­mis­sion of this applic­a­tion the ori­gin­al applic­ants (Cairngorm Moun­tain Ltd) have gone into receiv­er­ship, the land­lord (HIE) is now the applic­ant and they wish the applic­a­tion to pro­ceed to determ­in­a­tion. An inde­pend­ent review of the infra­struc­ture at Cairngorm Moun­tain for HIE has been pub­lished which iden­ti­fied the expand­ing and remod­el­ling of the Ptar­mig­an res­taur­ant as one of a num­ber of poten­tial invest­ments to improve oper­a­tions, capa­city, exper­i­ence and rev­en­ues across the resort. How­ever it must be stressed that the oper­a­tion of the ski resort and any invest­ment in it is one for HIE and the oper­at­ing com­pany. The cur­rent plan­ning applic­a­tion must be determ­ined on plan­ning policy and land use plan­ning merits.

6. The key land use plan­ning issues, as with any plan­ning applic­a­tion, are the sit­ing, ser­vi­cing, design and envir­on­ment­al impacts of the pro­pos­al in rela­tion to adopted

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 24/05/2019

Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan policies. Accord­ingly this report con­cen­trates on the land use plan­ning implic­a­tions of the pro­posed development.

Land­scape Impacts

1. The applic­a­tion site is loc­ated with­in the Cairngorms Nation­al Scen­ic Area, the Nation­al Park and close to the Cairngorms Wild Land Area No. 15. As such it is import­ant that the land­scape impacts of